Sales of the Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicle have been very much up and down since the car launched. At one point Chevrolet placed production of the Volt on hold due to poor demand only to restart production earlier than expected due to an uptick in sales. At the same time, sales of the pure electric-powered Nissan Leaf have continued to struggle as it becomes clear Nissan will be unable to meet its lofty sales goals for 2012.

Nissan had expected to sell 20,000 electric vehicles in the U.S. during 2012 and has so far only been able to sell 3,543. During the month of July, Nissan sold just 395 Leaf EVs, which represents a decline of 58% compared to July 2011.

Nissan Leaf

Although Nissan isn't selling very many Leaf EVs, the automaker still insists it will meet its 20,000-unit goal for 2012. That goal seems very unlikely since Nissan will need to sell close to 3,300 Leaf EVs each month for the remainder of the year.

"Our target has not changed," said Nissan spokesman David Reuter on Wednesday, acknowledging that, "sales to date have not met our expectations."

Chevrolet Volt

GM is faring better with its Volt with sales rising compared to July of 2011 to 1,849 units in July 2012 compared to only in 125 units in July 2011. Through the first first seven months of 2012, GM has sold 10,666 Volt extended range electric vehicles for an increase of 270% compared to the first seven months of 2011.

Detroit News reports that sales of the Volt have been boosted by factors outside of Chevrolet's control, including the fact that California granted lone Volt drivers the ability to access carpool lanes. One in every three Volts sold are purchased in California.

GM sold more than twice as many Volts in July as Toyota sold Prius plug-in hybrid vehicles. Toyota moved only 688 of the latest Prius variant during July.

In July 2011 the Volt was just starting out. The sales are NOT SURGING in any way.10,000 copies in one year ALSO IS NOT GREAT!PLEASE do report the facts stright.

Also the Nissan Leaf isn't selling JUST because they are not going to reach their sales goals! Re-read what you wrote. It sounds like the Leaf isn't selling ONLY because they can't reach the number of sales they want.

Yeah this article drips with bias. And citing Detroit News as source material for a Volt article? That's like using the NRA in a gun control piece. Detroit News are homers for ANYTHING GM related, obviously.

If that's a sales "surge" I would love to see what he calls a slump lol.

The Volt is one of the biggest disasters in American automotive history. Not opinion, provable statistical fact. There's no other way to honestly spin that.

lol I knew it! The Volt is not only subsidized 7 ways to Sunday by Big Gov, but it's sales have been HIGHLY padded by Government fleet buys and State Gov, also purchase agreements by Obama Cronies like GE.

You didn't read the whole link did you? Well here's a somewhat important part at the end:

"GM sales spokesman, Jim Cain, points out that total government sales for GM in June were still below 5% of total sales and majority of government sales increases were attributed to state and local governments."

How can you pretend to separate "a car" that was personally endorsed, pushed for, and marketed in part because of a Democrat President from politics? Please, do not insult our intelligence. Your ultra-simplistic view of this situation is also not appreciated.

quote: Further, I am going to go on a limb here by assuming skeptics of the car's design have not driven the car.

This is entirely irrelevant as well. How would taking the Volt for a test drive change it's pathetic return on investment, it's anemic electric range, or anything else?

How would test driving the Volt suddenly make me feel I deserve to have the American taxpayer subsidize my purchase?

quote: Personally, having driven the car I can vouch for the vehicle's quality and appeal. Further, I am going to go on a limb here by assuming skeptics of the car's design have not driven the car.

Except it's not a seller, it's been a disaster. So going by your logic we can assume 98% of the car buying public is just a bunch of right-wingers biased against the Volt. Really? Let's think about that.

INFERENCE:Although domestic electric vehicles are more costly, drivers produce "positive" recirculating cash-flows because more domestic energy is consumed. This is beneficial to the local economy and this is why the federal government purchases these vehicles in higher volumes. They are a better investment.

ALTERNATIVE INFERENCE:Increased usage of natural gas being a domestic product is also beneficial to the U.S. economy.

You keep trying to make this like a personal thing, it's not. I don't "despise" the Volt. It gets 500% more coverage on Daily Tech than ANY other vehicle, and I post a lot, so of course it might seem like that. But you're not even trying to give me the benefit of the doubt.

Chrysler should not exist today. They've been bailed out, what, 4 times now? This doesn't mean I "despise" them, however.

I despise big government and their interference into the marketplace. The Volt should win, or lose, on it's own. So should it's parent company.

If that makes me a "hater", well, so be it. At least I know I'm on the right side.

I just finished a course in modern world history. I can bore you with text but if you do research on how the Marshall Plan recreated a devastated economy you will realize that your idea of pure and true capitalism is deeply flawed.

quote: I prefer to have ideas and not beliefs. Belief is definite and unmovable. A man who knows nothing is closer to the truth than a man who knows all the wrong things.

You have a misunderstanding of what beliefs are. Socrates said go strong in your beliefs but accept that you could be wrong. Beliefs are only set in stone if you hold them that way. Without beliefs like say ethics and critical reasoning, ideas will go terribly awry.

Your argument against capitalism is flawed. In the link they complain that much of the money went back to the US to buy equipment. Where else were they supposed to buy or build them? They were devastated and had little infrastructure. The Marshal Plan was to prevent what happened after WWI with Germany. Unfortunately much of "Modern History" is pretty flawed in its bad-America message. We are by no means perfect but to do nothing would have been far worse. BTW, De Gaulle thought he won the war and the French, who lost control of their country twice and had it returned by us still have a chip on their shoulder. With the socialist Hollande in charge watch France look more like Greece and Spain than Germany.

Our problem is not Capitalism but Cronyism passed off as Capitalism. Yes, Capitalism does require some regulation to function properly. Also, what other form of government is more successful? None. Communism, Socialism, Fascism, et al fail miserably because they discount human behavior and emotions. They are nothing more than empty promises that can never be delivered on, equal outcome instead of equal opportunity. Look at Europe today. Those bastions of Socialism! The few sort of successful Nordic ones are having to kick out immigrants who refuse to assimilate because they siphon off resources and they have little room for error in their ludicrously over taxed economies. That is their choice and it can work to a point in small countries but it risks faltering by pulling too much out of the economy.

Read the Federalist papers, John Locke, Aristotle's Ethics, Milton Friedman, the depression of 1920 and what corrected it, and F.A. Hayek to correct your unfortunate, delusional, left biased indoctrination.

If you have no context in which to apply to what you are feed at what passes as education these days you have a greater probability of becoming what Stalin called his useful idiots.

You don't deserve the "benefit of the doubt". You refuse to give it to anyone else. Now that you've been called out on your hysterical partisan nonsense, you're embarrassed. It wouldn't matter if that car company generated enough money to get the USA out of ALL DEBT, you'd still continue with your nonsense because you hate the guy in the White House. You root against America because of this hatred, and it's sickening.

Get your facts straight, Chrysler was bailed out twice, and both times it was a good thing for this country. Maybe your not from this country and that's why you see it differently. If you are from this country, you should have your head examined.

Penn Central Railroad was bailed out in 1970-3.2 billionLockheed in 1971-1.4 billionFranklin Nat. Bank in 1974-7.8 billionNew York city in 1975-9.4 billionChrysler in 1980-4 billionContinental Bank in 1984-9.5 billionSavings and Loan in 1989-293.3 billionAirline Industry in 2001-18.6 billionBear Stearns in 2008-30 billionFannie Mae in 2008-490 millionAIG in 2008-25 billion

The United States Government has a history of making loans to troubled private businesses, and most of those bailouts did not include employees as members of unions, so stop acting like this bailout is something unprecedented. I would also assume that you would keep track of all of those businesses listed and that you've never patronized or benefitted from them in any way including subsidiaries who have invested in them, correct? I would also assume that you have a home loan through Fannie Mae or a subsidiary and that as soon as you found out, you found a new lender that was not managed by them (though that would be very difficult to do).

Car purchases go beyond ROI. Sometimes it's because you want a sporty car, or a luxury car, or you simply want a car that greatly decreases your use of gasoline. This money is mostly spent for the experience or the feeling of owning such a car and doesn't really factor into ROI.

Actually you're the one who brought up Obama, and fleet buys ans the tax credit, so you brought politics into the discussion.

Second by your logic plasma tv's should never have been produced because they cost like $10,000 when they first came out. They were ridiculously over priced. New products cost a premium when they first come to market. The price decreases over time. The 1st generation of the Volt costs a premium, they'll refine it and the costs will come down. If they don't, then they're foolish and deserve to fail.

F you. You bought a car that I helped pay for. Tax credit my butt. I am going out on a limb here to say that our tax dollars could be used for something better than to get already well off people to buy an electric car!!! STUPID STUPID STUPID. If you can afford a volt you dont need the government helping you buy a car! Is that political? Seems more common sense.

Luxury cars, which has been mentioned time and again by naysayers is the segment the Volt's price exists in, usually don't get great gas mileage. If we just consider regular old internal combustion-engined cars (and not hybrids/plug-in cars that qualify for rebates and such) then Luxury cars are often powered by 6 cylinder engines, and V8s aren't out of the question. Usually these cars get low 20s city and maybe 30 or so highway, IIRC.

What I'm getting at is-- maybe bean counters realized offering a rebate, even if the rebate is going to go to people who can afford $40k cars, makes more sense than having these people buy a "gas guzzling" luxury car and be more at the mercy of OPEC nations and oil price fluctuations

Yep, and I particularly enjoyed taking your US$0.000025 off of my return!

BTW, how much mortgage interest, state tax and child credit are you taking off of _your_ taxes? Because those are subsidies too. Mortgage interest deduction subsidizes mortgages (banks, housing prices), state tax deductions subsidize hightaxland at the expense of lowtaxland, and child credits subsidize fucking and reproduction.

I'll take back as much of my money as I can anyway I can, it's the American way!

Don't tie me to some political party.I'm against the Volt and all that go with it.It's not political!I do not side with either side, hate politics and all things associated with it.My point from the first post - STOP THE DAILY NEWS DROPS ABOUT THE DAMN CAR!We get it - it's an EV with a gas powered engine to make you not run out of battery power and be stranded - AND IT'S NOT SELLING THAT WELL!Period end of story.

Just report the news - AND this is NOT news.Don't add any stupid crap we don't need car about!

quote: I'm against the Volt and all that go with it.It's not political!

So you are against Electronic Drive?Against Hybrids?Against Batteries?Against using Less Oil?Against using Domestic Energy?Against US based Innovation?Against Niche Cars?Against 4 Door Sedans?Against Lift Backs?Against GM?Against Black Strip Styling?

What exactly are you against? Outside the political double talk and political tax credit? (After all you said its not political)

I have a hard time how anyone could be against electronic drive. Against paying for it personally or politically yes. But how can you be against a significantly more efficient form of drivetrain that provides "linear" power? Electronic Drive is -so- good that the Model S doesn't even need a gearbox!

Or maybe its batteries in cars? Good luck finding a car without several batteries in it. Both Lithium AND Lead Acid. How do you think your key fob works? -TWO- batteries. 1 Lithium based and 1 NiMH or Lithium based.

If you take the politics of enfornced public contrabution away, there really isn't -anything- to be against.

It's just a PR, mearketing event. I'm against the crap media, and the crap PR GM marketing people that constantly keep the Volt in the news to drum up sales. And they are't. They aren't selling in any big numbers.

You WANT to believe the Volt is a "disaster" because you have been carefully and expensively taught (with your own artificially expensive gasoline purchases!) to hate all forms of transporation energy other than gasoline and petroleum-derived diesel.

Thus, you have a desire to reject all good news and gleefully trumpet all setbacks.

In the real world, the Volt has sold mone units in its first year than the Toyota Prius did in the Prius's first year. And this year the Volt is on track to DOUBLE last year's sales. The Prius also endured jeers over its initial high prices, qualification for tax breaks and other incentives, green ethos, etc., but Toyota did not get rattled, calmly gave the Prius time to find its market, and now the Prius is a monster hit, one of the top sellers in America, THE top seller in Japan, cheaper by nearly half in real dollars due to economies of scale, no longer qualifying for tax breaks due to high sales, and a major profit generatior for Toyota. Do we have the same attention span, long-term discpline, and focus as the Japanese?

OK, so they sold 10,000 this year.Last year was year one. It only makes sense that more know about the Volt, since it's in the news one way or another EVERY DAY of no good reason other than to inflate sales, That's a small percentage of total vehicles sold, hybird or EV. Meaning the car buying public REALLY doesn't want it. You NEED to give perspective of what sales are. Not some spin that makes things look better than they are!

Comparing the first year of the Prius to the Volt's first year also isn't a good comparison. We are now MPG focused. When the Prius came out we had cheap gas and there wasn't a market for hybrids yet. How many Prius sold for all 2011, or for 2012 so far compared to Volts for all of 2012??

quote: 10,000 copies for an expensive plug-in hybrid is relatively good all things considered.

GM said they expected to sell 10,000 Volts during calendar year 2011. They did not make that goal. They also stated that they expected to sell 45,000 Volts during calendar year 2012. They are on pace to sell a little over 20,000 Volts in 2012. Comparing 2012 sales to 2011 sales numbers should also be compared to the 2012 and 2011 expected sales. Coming in at half of your expected sales volume in my opinion would be considered a failure.